Save The Hill of Tara, the National Monument of Ireland - Please sign the petition!

genie

http://www.petitiononline.com/hilltara/petition.html

Save the Tara/Skryne Valley Campaign Home Page

http://www.taraskryne.org/

Capt'n Midnight

http://www.nra.ie/PublicPrivatePartnership/ProjectTracker/N3Clonee-Kells/

N3 Clonee - Kells

Description

This is one of the projects announced by the NRA in June 2000 under Tranche II of the PPP Roads programme. This project lies on the Monaghan to Dublin route and will involve the construction of a 50 km stretch of motorway/dual carriageway, and 11 km of single carriageway. The scheme also involves construction of a further 24 km of link road.

The NRA has advertised in the Official Journal of the European Communities inviting expressions of interest for pre-qualification. The oral hearing into the Environmental Impact Statement and Motorway Scheme were held and completed in 2002. The scheme received An Bord Pleanala approval in August 2003.

http://www.taraskryne.org/madness.html
One typo -

Why, and in what circumstances, was a decision taken to reclassify for motorway treatment many stretches which as recently as 1998 had been identified by the expert National Roads Needs Study are requiring only dual carriageway roads in order to cope with traffic growth up to 20192.

I take it no one believes that motorways are kickbacks to the construction industry in the way some have accused interperative centres of being.

DMC

TBH, the sooner the better. Kells in 40 mins from Blanchardstown, bring it on.

Its not as if they are going to tarmac the exact spot of St. Patrick's statue, are they now? Its not going to be exactly like Carrickmines castle, removing part of the site. It would open up Kells and Navan as good locations for businesses, already choked by how busy the N3 is.

I like my heritage, but it has to go somewhere.

pdh

The sooner the M3 is built the better, and I would say that goes for everybody else that has to commute from Navan, Dunshaughlin etc into Dublin.

I agree with DMC, there will be no major impact to any historical sites in the Boyne Valley. It seems to me the only people objecting are rich farmers & horse breeders who don't have to commute like the ordinary PAYE'er who has to pay taxes to keep the grants going. Also don't forget the NIMBY's and the tree huggers ! ! !

Suaimhneach

Ah, being a tree huger myself I'd appricate if you took a moment to actually realise what it is you are saying.

Tara is equally as important as Newgrange, just not as well known. If they put up this motorway it is going to change the whole layout of the monument. It will disrupt it and eventually destroy it.

I refuse to see something my ancestors had being turned into a tourist attraction in which I have to pay to visit. It belongs to Ireland.

As an alternative there is an old railway line 3 miles in another direction that isnt in use that would be a much better option. It seems there is other people behind this road, brown-envelopers and such looking to have it built.

Kaner

I'm a bit of a tree hugger myself, and I hate to see needless destruction of the natural environment, but to tell you the truth I cannot see what the problem is here.

The motorway is further away from Tara than the main Navan road is now. A dual carrigeway would take up just as much space as a motorway. Navan has been designated urban development area to help stop the spread of Dublin, so it needs good road and rail links with Dublin.

I have been to Tara and I hunted around for some of the other sites in the valley. There is not much to see apart from Tara and some small earthworks. Now it appears that the whole valley has become the monument rather than just Tara.

There is really no comparison between Tara and Newgrange. The monument at Tara is a just some bumps on top of a hill. Yes the bumps are the remains of the High Kings seat, great hall and all that, but there is really not much to see, compared to Newgrange.

I love history, and I think ancient sites should be protected, but to stop present day infrastructure projects being built because they change the view is a bit much. It gets all tree huggers a bad name.

Suaimhneach

The problem with it is that they would be putting the road through the middle of the Skreen valley and Tara. They will have to excavate it. It will probably cost millions to do as well. It damages the infrastructure because it is spilting the middle of the site as a whole which is diffrent to the Navan road, which I'm assuming is outside of the area. I'm not sure though.

It's much more than the view in danger here. It would be drawing a line through the middle of it. Breaking it. Protecting Tara is something to be proud of IMO, not ashamed of, as a "tree hugger" or not.

Kaner

I appreciate your point that the cost of excavatons will be high, but it seems to me that anywhere in Meath is going to have lots of ancient artifacts. The preconstruction investigations will unearth a lot of material and knowledge that would otherwise remain hidden. If you look at the results of the archeological work done on the M1 motorway it is pretty impressive and shows a lot of concern for our history and heritage.

http://www.taraskryne.org/

This map shows the Tara site along with the motorway route compared to the existing Navan road. It looks like the motorway is about as far from Tara as the M1 is from Newgrange.

Its a pity that the road is necessary, but driving in Ireland is such a pain in the ass compared to other countries.

By the way - there are plans to build a railway to Navan. I am not sure about the route, but it will probably use the old railway line.

Adeptus Titanicus

Originally posted by jesjes
It's much more than the view in danger here. It would be drawing a line through the middle of it. Breaking it. Protecting Tara is something to be proud of IMO, not ashamed of, as a "tree hugger" or not.

The proposed route of the new motorway is not splitting the site, or complex, itself. The complex at Tara is at the hill itself, and monuments in the immediate vicinity (Rath Maeve for example) as outlined on the map in the link you included, and as you can see, the motorway is further away than the existing road.

The main problem is that it is cutting through a rich archaeological landscape in the Tara hinterland. As Kaner said, they are bound to hit something considering how rich that part of the county is in archaeology, so what can you do? :dunno:

It will cost, but it will also yield more detailed information on the archaeology of the area if there are excavations.

A double edged sword...

pork99

Originally posted by Adeptus
It will cost, but it will also yield more detailed information on the archaeology of the area if there are excavations.

Build the road & do the archaeology - why can't we have both?

Also one could argue that better road access will facilitate people coming from around the country to "visit with" our national mouments.